Sondre Guttormsen, a sophomore pole vaulter on the Princeton men’s track and field team, cleared 5.66m (18’7”) in the pole vault on Saturday in Gothenburg, Sweden, during his first competition of 2021.
The jump was the highest ever by an Ivy League pole vaulter and set a Gothenburg stadium record.
Guttormsen transferred to Princeton in the fall from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), joining his younger brother — Simen Guttormsen — who is also a sophomore pole vaulter on Princeton’s track and field team.
“My first year at Princeton has been very different from what I expected,” Guttormsen said. “It feels weird to be enrolled and to be a part of a school that I have never been to but everyone I have ‘met’ so far have been very welcoming.”
As a freshman at UCLA, Guttormsen won a Pac-12 individual title after clearing 5.36m (17’7”) at the 2019 Pac-12 Outdoor Championships. He earned Second Team All-American honors after placing ninth at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships with a jump of 5.60m (18’4.5”). Although enrolled at Princeton, Guttormsen currently trains in and competes for his home country, Norway.
“From an athletic point of view, I have been lucky enough to have access to training facilities and I have both a coach and training group in my home town Ski, Norway.”